General Grievous - ROTS - Sneak Preview (1 of 4)

Name: General GrievousCollection: Revenge Of The SithNumber: 1 of 4Source: Revenge Of The SithAvailability: January 2005License: Hasbro

General Grievous is a brilliant military fighter and commander of the droid armies. He was trained in lightsaber combat by the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus, making him a particularly deadly opponent for the Jedi.

Episode III was eagerly anticipated perhaps at a higher level than the first two prequels. Some may argue that Episode I was, but we believe that hardcore Star Wars fans knew that George Lucas had one last opportunity to connect the dots between Episode III and Episode IV (very quickly no less) since very little progress was made towards Anakin’s downfall in the first two films. Episode III was coming soon and in January 2005, almost immediately after the wrap up of the 2004 phase of The Original Trilogy Collection, Hasbro released four Sneak Preview basic figures to retail and collectors began getting very enthused for the film. One of the film’s major characters, General Grievous, was part of this assortment. It was the first time we saw him as an action figure (animated or realistic style), but wasn’t the first time we feasted our eyes upon his equally mechanical and organic physique. We saw General Grievous at the end of the Volume 1 of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars. And we couldn’t wait to see him in action in Revenge Of The Sith. The General Grievous (Sneak Preview) figure is a great first effort by Hasbro, but in an age of desiring premium articulation, you may be left wanting more.

General Grievous in realistic form has been represented well here, especially for an early advanced look at this main character in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. The sculpt is very well done although General Grievous is a little too short for a Kaleesh warlord. But that isn’t the only problem he has. Some aesthetics and some details are not perfect. We wonder if some parts of Grievous were a little rushed before getting the final sculpt approved. There are some great points to General Grievous too. Hasbro opted to include a plastic-molded cape here and it attaches to the figure via two holes in his chest that accept two tiny plugs on the cape. What’s surprising is how closely and tightly these prongs work to keep the cape in place. We’re impressed. It’s such a simple concept, but it exceeds expectations here. General Grievous comes with a single blue lightsaber that separate into hilt and blade. This wasn’t necessary for this release because General Grievous keeps the hilts in pockets on the inside of his cape, something that hasn’t been worked into the sculpt here. And lastly, Grievous looks a little bit too dirty in our opinion and Hasbro could have actually held back on some of the final wash used to show his battle bruises and ruggedness from fighting in the Clone Wars.

We also feel that Hasbro didn’t take General Grievous’ articulation as far as they should have. Clearly the very design of General Grievous implies countless point of articulation. It is perhaps this very reason why Hasbro was conservative. Too many points of articulation with weak joints would render this figure utterly useless. But we think that Hasbro could have found ground somewhere in between basic articulation and uber articulation to develop an action figure that would be the best result for both kids and collectors. Grievous is indeed limited by his swivel elbows and lack of ankle joints in particular. And it’s a shame because the sculpt is actually done very well – and we even like the paint job of this figure despite its inaccuracy. However, that being said, this General Grievous action figure is a great first effort for the collecting community. We think it’s awesome that Hasbro decided to choose such a main character of this magnitude to release as a Sneak preview figure. That was a wise decision. But a figure like R4-G9 is superior in many ways to General Grievous which shows that proper execution trumps super-articulation. Even so, General Grievous should be an addition to your collection. He’s pretty good for an action figure.